Nick Reiner sat behind glass in a brown jumpsuit, head shaved, and let his public defender say two words for him: not guilty. To two counts of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his parents — director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner — in their own Brentwood home. But that plea wasn't a claim of innocence. It was a placeholder, and understanding why tells you where this whole case is headed. This look back breaks down the legal machinery most headlines skipped — the doors the defense can still walk through, from a full insanity argument to a diminished-capacity push aimed at the degree of the charge, to a challenge over whether he's even fit to stand trial. Each leads somewhere completely different. We revisit where things stood at the time of our reporting and the question underneath all of it: what do we owe someone who refuses help, and what do we owe the people left in the wreckage? Then there's the family. Nick's siblings, Jake and Romy, have reportedly stepped away entirely — not funding his defense, not planning to attend the trial. In months behind bars, sources say his only visitor has been his lawyer. This segment puts their choice alongside three other families who reached the same breaking point: a father who walked away and said he wished his son had never been born; a family that went silent after an unspeakable crime; a daughter who had to mourn her father and the monster he turned out to be as two separate losses. The question isn't whether the Reiner siblings were right to step back. It's what it cost them to hold on as long as they did. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ ​Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872 This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #NickReiner #RobReiner #MicheleReiner #JakeRomyReiner #NotGuilty #InsanityDefense #TrueCrime #Parricide #FamilyTragedy #HiddenKillers